Sensex and Nifty closed higher on Tuesday amid positive global equities and sustained foreign fund inflows. Tracking gains in index majors HDFC twins, ICICI Bank and Reliance Industries, the 30-scrip BSE benchmark Sensex ended 287 points higher at 39,044 and NSE Nifty 50 closed 81 points to 11,521. Yesterday, Sensex fell 97 points to 39,756 and Nifty ended 43 points lower at 11,421.
Titan, followed by Sun Pharma, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, NTPC, HDFC Bank and M&M were among the major gainers on Sensex. On the other hand, Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech, Kotak Bank, ITC and Bharti Airtel were among the laggards. Sectorally, strong buying sentiment was registered from pharma banking and financials that gained in the range of 2% to 1.5%, while stocks of FMCG, realty, auto, media and metal ended marginally lower.
Commenting on market movement today, S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities said, "Market Breadth improved for the second consecutive day as several Midcap stocks across diverse sectors posted handsome gains. The Small-Cap index rose more than 1.5% today on the back of a stellar 5% gain yesterday sending out a clear message that Investors are looking at a more broad market rally after having witnessed a polarised market for a considerable length of time".
Traders said equity markets rose higher today following news of a potential COVID-19 vaccine as AstraZeneca resumed its phase-3 trial. Although, gains were capped as traders also awaited the outcome from the US central bank's two-day policy meeting, scheduled on September 15-16.
In the forex market, India rupee, the currency benchmark tumbled 16 paise to close at 73.64 against the US dollar.
Asian markets were trading mostly higher, barring Nikkei as investors were bouyed by Chinese IIP and retail sales data. Reserve Bank of Australia minutes was released yesterday noted that downturn was not severe as expected.
Overseas, Asian stocks traded higher today as investors were bouyed from key economic data from China like retail sales and industrial production.
Wall Street yesterday closed higher as signs of progress in developing a COVID-19 vaccine and lifted tech sentiments.
Expressing views on global markets, Yash Gupta - Equity Research Associate, Angel Broking said, " US futures traded higher - DOW Jones up by 327 points (up 1.18%) and NASDAQ up by 203 points (up 1.87%)."
India's retail inflation for the month of August stood at 6.69%, data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Monday showed. The consumer price index (CPI)-based inflation rate for July has been revised to 6.73% from 6.93%.
Commenting on upcoming monetary policy post-CPI inflation numbers for August 2020, Angel Broking in its note said, "Though we expect the CPI inflation numbers to subside going forward as food inflation is expected to come off due to a bumper Kharif crop we believe that the core inflation will continue running high for some time to come which can keep inflation above the RBIs target rate of 4% in the near future. Therefore we believe that the RBI is unlikely to cut its policy rates in the next MPC meeting which starts from the 29th of Sep'20."
Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said," Domestically, favourable inflation data and expectation of it going down further aided the positivity while the broader markets continued its outperformance today. The markets are almost at the upper end of the trading range and a push above 11600 by Nifty could bring in more trading optimism".
Expressing views on the week ahead, Religare Broking in its note said,"Investors will watch for Federal Reserve announcements on September 16 after the two-day FOMC meeting, where it is expected that the US Fed will adopt a dovish stance. Also, market participants would wait for the BOJ and the BOE's policy decisions, due on Thursday. In the US economic calendar, industrial data and retail sales data will be watched in the first half, while housing data, weekly jobless claims and consumer sentiments data will be on the radar in later part of the week."
Meanwhile, April-June quarter earnings by Cantabil Retail, Manpasand beverages, Max India, MTNL, Spicejet, Vedanta ltd, Va Tech Wabag among others will also set the tone of market tomorrow.
Worldwide, there were 294.42 lakh confirmed cases and 9.32 lakh deaths from COVID-19 outbreak. Meanwhile, India's death toll from COVID-19 infections rose to 80,808 and total coronavirus cases to 49.26 lakh as of Tuesday.
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Share Market Highlights: Sensex ends 287 points higher, Nifty at 11,521; Axis Bank, Cipla, UPl top gainers